The Sunday News
Meluleki Moyo
GOING down memory lane, I recall one day as we spread our beds after collecting our mattresses for the new term after long and tiresome journeys from our homes to that Adventist educational institution, Lower Gwelo Adventist High School. A close friend, one Masiza Sibanda, related his ordeal at a long distance bus terminus a couple of hours earlier:
“I helplessly looked at the knife-wielding pickpocket approaching, fear gripped me to an extent that I failed to alert my father who was engaged in a conversation with the bus driver. As the pickpocket grabbed my bag and attempted to vanish into the crowd, I screamed for help, alerting my father and inviting the crowd which quickly rendered the unlucky thief some instant justice”. In as much as I grinned and sympathised with him, to me his was a tale of failure. Wherever you are, pardon me dear childhood friend.
This observation scattered my mind and brought the biblical exodus of the Israelites to the fore, once again. When they were trapped in-between Pharaoh’s armies and the Red Sea, the Bible says the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out . . . (Exodus 14:10). This was an act of failure on the part of the Israelites, a failure which distracted them from the bigger picture, I noted.
The following considerations made me reach such conclusions. Firstly, looking up, implies that the Israelites glued their eyes on circumstances instead of the present help. Secondly, being terrified implies that they allowed emotions to take control.
Thirdly, crying out was an expression of fear making them develop a blurred vision with regards to seeing and considering the importance of the very present help. Crying out was therefore a last resort, a clear expression of desperation.
These observations however, made me pardon my friend as I felt that he was probably a victim of the fulfilment of an array of biblical tales and prophecies. We headed for the cafeteria for our first vegetarian supper of the new term, and of course, for a reunion with mates.
Leading the Israelites out of Egypt from Pharaoh’s bondage was not an easy task for Moses. It would be paramount to stress that for the Israelites, coupled with God’s test on their faith, the tribulations started when the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” (Exodus 14: 5). To this end, Pharaoh unleashed his armies on the Israelites and would say of the sons of Israel, “They are wondering aimlessly in the land; the wilderness has shut them in!” A clear indication that King Pharaoh found joy in their suffering, he could not send aid to them, and all he could send was a pursuing army. What strikes the heart is how the Israelites overcame the imposed hardships from natural occurrences.
As the Israelites faced hardships in the wilderness, God delivered them in a number of miraculous ways, still some did not believe, or should I say, they chose not to believe. Grumbles and complaints characterised the Israelites’ way of life. God deliberately designed the Red Sea to test and prove the Israelites so he could prepare them for future battles. His will was to keep them in the desert for less than two years. Unfortunately, due to their lack of faith, hardness of heart and disobedience towards Moses, the God-chosen leader, they wandered in the wilderness for an additional thirty eight years! This was unnecessary, had they listened to leadership.
On the other hand, there was this worrying trend in Israel’s behaviour. When all was going well, they listened to Moses.
However, when the going got tough, they grumbled, complained and remembered Egypt. God’s plans often seem stupid to the unsaved world, but God has reasons for everything he does, and in turn, He makes the world look stupid. This was the fate of King Pharaoh and his armies at the Red Sea, in all human sense, they looked stupid.
At the sea of reeds, God made the waters deep enough to sink the pursuing Egyptian armies. I find the Red Sea test touching and interesting at the same time as I come to imagine the saved Israelites, triumphantly staging a million plus men march out of the Red Sea, under the God-chosen, tried and tested leadership.
When they complained of thirst as they came face to face with the bitter waters at Marah, He gave them sweet waters, when they complained of hunger, He gave them bread. And when they complained and longed for meat, that evening quail birds came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp (Exodus 16: 13) and all that day and night and the next day the people went out and gathered quail (Numbers 11: 32). These provisions were so surprising and difficult to understand, that the Israelites could not understand, they perpetually asked one another, “What is this?”
Being cognisant of the fact that religious freedom is guaranteed in Zimbabwe, it would be unwise to solely delve on the teachings and lessons from Christianity. At this juncture, perhaps, history and tradition can complete the enlightenment cause.
When present day Zimbabwe earned its independence after the protracted armed struggle, it was all joy as the new nation blossomed into celebration on the eve of independence.
For many, dawn was nigh. Little did they know the former colonial masters were soon to change their minds, ignore the Lancaster House agreement and pursue the liberated flock in a number of ways.
Ah! How could they not when the former colonial subjects had been of great service to them, sustaining their mining and agricultural activities?
Taking advantage of a climate change induced wilderness, coupled and characterised by nascent droughts, the unrepentant former colonial masters unleashed an array of illegal economic sanctions on the liberated flock in an attempt to make them rebel against the leadership, blindly ushering them back to colonial rule, a political endeavour similar to Pharaoh’s plans which were bent at nothing besides transferring the leadership of the Israelites from Moses and back to him, a precise definition of a regime change!
Regardless of all the deliberately orchestrated hardships, we still strive and thrive. Our God-given natural resources are abundant enough to ease the impact of the economic obstacles.
